Friday, June 11, 2010

Ephesians 6 DEVO: Submission & the Spiritual Battle

Chapter 6:“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." Ok, so how many of your parents have made you memorize these verses? Yeah well, Drew & Jessica have had to learn them too! The promise if you do obey is both quality life (“go well”) and quantity life (“long life”). And yes students, dad has a big responsibility here as well: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” As a dad, this is a great reminder. But students, even if you have a dad who overbearingly upsets you, that doesn’t not make you exempt from the command to obey (darn).
Paul then turns to slave & masters. Now I know this may not be as relevant now, but if you consider your employers as masters, it certainly is relevant. We are to work hard to please both them & God!
Paul concludes by preparing his readers for the spiritual battle! He reminds us of a number of things:
- That our strength is in the LORD – not ourselves (10).
- That our BATTLE is not with people but with Satan and his demons (11-12).
- That we must PUT ON the full armor of God for protection (13)
- That we must STAND FIRM with truth & what is right (14)
- That our FEET should be out sharing the good news (15)
- That our FAITH acts like a shield (16) and our SALVATION protects our renewed mind (17).
- That our weapon is the WORD of GOD (17).
I’ve always been told that the Word of God is our only offensive weapon, but I believe there is another: PRAYER! It’s mentioned 5 times in 18-20: Pray, Pray, Pray!!! Prayer and the Word of God are both offensive weapons we are to familiar with if we are going to fight strong in the Lord!SO WHAT?!
*Why not take some time today and honor your parents. Maybe do something without being asked (ok, they may have a heart attack), or let them know how much you appreciate them or pray for them. Here’s a prayer thought: For the most part, we will grow up to be much like our parents – good or bad! Since this is highly likely, then we need to pray that our parents be like Jesus so we will be too! Let’s pray it!